“Undeterred by Apple’s pronouncements regarding ‘convergence’ of mobile and traditional PC devices, Neonode, a Swedish company, has designed the AirBar,” Mark Hibben writes for Seeking Alpha. “AirBar attaches to the bottom of the screen of a 13-inch MacBook Air to give it touch screen functionality. Even AppleInsider has called the experience ‘oddly satisfying.'”

Hibben writes, “It was back in November that Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing took to the Internet to explain and justify Apple’s refusal to endow Macs with touch screens. As reported by Backchannel, he had this to say:”

“We think of the whole platform,” he says. “If we were to do Multi-Touch on the screen of the notebook, that wouldn’t be enough – then the desktop wouldn’t work that way.” And touch on the desktop, he says, would be a disaster. “Can you imagine a 27-inch iMac where you have to reach over the air to try to touch and do things? That becomes absurd.” He also explains that such a move would mean totally redesigning the menu bar for fingers, in a way that would ruin the experience for those using pointer devices like the touch or mouse. “You can’t optimize for both,” he says. “It’s the lowest common denominator thinking.”

Apple came to this conclusion by testing if touch screens made sense on the Mac. “Our instincts were that it didn’t, but, what the heck, we could be wrong – so our teams worked on that for a number of times over the years,” says Schiller. “We’ve absolutely come away with the belief that it isn’t the right thing to do. Our instincts were correct.”

“I think Schiller is absolutely wrong. In fact, I think the whole issue of accommodating touchscreen mode on a large monitor is a red herring, for the following reasons,” Hibben writes. “No operating system, whether Microsoft’s Windows 10, or Google’s Android 7, that implements both touch and pointer driven interfaces forces the user to use one or the other exclusively. So Schiller’s statement about users of a 27-inch iMac being forced to use touch on the large screen doesn’t make any sense.”

“A properly designed macOS system that supported touchscreens would always allow users the option of using a mouse, touchpad or keyboard,” Hibben writes. “When I encounter that kind of transparently flawed rationalization, all I can think is that Apple is adrift without adequate product leadership. In this case, all Apple’s management can do is steer by the original guidance of Steve Jobs, who declared touchscreen notebooks ‘ergonomically terrible’ when the iPad was first introduced.”

“What I found interesting about AirBar is the fact that there is no change to the macOS user interface whatsoever. AirBar essentially acts like a giant trackpad overlaid on the screen. The mouse cursor simply goes to whatever point on the screen is touched. It’s that simple,” Hibben writes. “It’s really hard to believe that Apple worked ‘for years’ on this problem, only to conclude that they were right all along. I’ve seen this phenomenon before. Management goes through the motions of considering an alternative to the current policy, often making a big show of it. But the outcome is a foregone conclusion, because management has already made up its mind.”

MacDailyNews Take: Hibben lists several reasons why Apple’s management might have come to a foregone conclusion, but one stands out: “Touchscreen Macs would cannibalize sales of the iPad.”

Apple brass seem to have convinced themselves that the iPad is the PC/Mac replacement for 95% of personal computer users today and, by Jobs, they’re sticking to it regardless of flashing neon signs to the contrary – even as they inexplicably fail to update iPads for Christmas and in the face of ever-declining iPad sales. We’ll be very interested to see what Cook & Co.’s plans are for iPad and, of course, for the Mac in this coming year.

Here’s an idea: Apple could sell iPad Pros as they do now, and for those wanting a “Mac,” Apple could sell them the macOS-powered display-less keyboard/trackpad/cpu/RAM/SSD/battery base unit. Attach your iPad for the display and off you go, you Mac-headed truck driver! Plus, you get to use the iPad’s battery, too, extending battery life to provide a truly all-day battery for portable Mac users. Detach the display and you get your iOS-powered iPad back, same as always.

Too outside the box? We’d love to be able to take our 12-inch iPad Pro, mate it with this theoretical Mac base unit, and turn it into a portable Mac. Right now, we carry 12-inch iPad Pros and MacBooks in our backpacks. Guess what’s redundant? Right, the displays. We don’t need to carry two screens on the road. The iPad Pro’s screen would do just fine, thanks.

Buy the Mac base on its own (for those who already have 12-inch iPad Pros) or buy it as part of a package (get a new 12-inch iPad Pro at a nice discount when you buy it with the Mac base). Imagine if Apple had unveiled this headless MacBook that you use with your iPad at their iPad event this past fall. What would the narrative about Apple be like versus what it is today? With such a product, would Apple have missed its revenue and profit goals for the year, causing Tim Cook and other high-level Apple executives to have their compensation cut? How many more 12-inch iPad Pro sales would such a product have generated? Enough to return iPad to unit sales growth, we bet. And, how many more Macs would have been sold, too?

As for touch:

To us longtime Apple watchers, Cupertino seems to be saying, “Multi-Touch on the screen only when trackpads are not part of the device.” – MacDailyNews, November 19, 2008

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Does it make more sense to be smearing your fingers around on your notebook’s screen or on a spacious trackpad (built-in or on your desk) that’s designed specifically and solely to be touched? Apple thinks things through much more than do other companies. The iPhone’s and iPad’s screens have to be touched; that’s all they has available. A MacBook’s screen doesn’t not have to be touched in order to offer Multi-Touch. There is a better way: Apple’s way. And, no Gorilla Arm, either.

The only computers using Multi-Touch properly, using device-appropriate Multi-Touch input areas are Macintosh personal computers from Apple that run OS X (and Linux and can even slum it with Windows, if need be) and iOS even more personal computers (EMPCs), namely: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and iPad mini.

Note that none of this bars a “MacPad” from production. Any iOS-based iPad would become a high quality display (possibly still “touchable,” but likely not due to the reasoning stated above) when docked into a “MacBook” (running OS X, and providing keyboard, trackpad, processor, etcetera). Such a convertible device would negate having to carry both an iPad (car) and a MacBook (truck) around. They’d be one thing, but able to be separated into two, each providing the best capabilities of their respective form factors. — MacDailyNews, May 4, 2013

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Think code convergence (more so than today) with UI modifications per device. A unified underlying codebase for Intel, Apple A-series, and, in Apple’s labs, likely other chips, too (just in case). This would allow for a single App Store for Mac, iPhone, and iPad users that features a mix of apps: Some that are touch-only, some that are Mac-only, and some that are universal (can run on both traditional notebooks and desktops as well as on multi-touch computers like iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and – pretty please, Apple – Apple TV). Don’t be surprised to see Apple A-series-powered Macs, either. — MacDailyNews Take, January 9, 2014

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Anyone in the market for a 12.9-inch device that’s an OS X-powered MacBook when docked with its keyboard base and an iOS-powered iPad when undocked? — MacDailyNews, October 7, 2014

Comment navigation

While Apple may be adrift, this doesn’t show it. To make fingertip targets big enough to use on an 11-inch screen, they would have to be HUGE (and hugely ugly) on a 27-inch screen. Sizing them appropriately for 27 would require using a stylus on 11. If the targets aren’t big enough or are too small for touch use, there is no point in providing a touch interface.

Repeatedly ifting one’s hands away from the keyboard (and touchpad) to touch the screen might be feasible on a 12-inch laptop, but it would require yoga-like stretches on a 27-inch iMac (even assuming that there aren’t two or more displays attached… each of which would have to be touch-enabled).

Yes, you could require developers to make their programs usable with both touch and pointer, but for most non-art applications, there isn’t much—if any—point. It would simply make the interface unnecessarily complex and the hardware unnecessarily expensive.

While I am not that excited about a touchscreen Mac, I think that your argument gets a little extreme. Since Apple was able to make a fully functional multitouch iPhone with 3.5″ to 5.5″ displays, and with iPads using 7.9″, 9.7″, and 12.9″ displays, it is reasonable to believe that Apple could do the same for Latoya with 11″ displays and larger. How big do you think the “fingertip targets” are on an iPhone?

Thank you for the voice of reason. I don’t know why or when it became that the ultimate Apple product would be a touchscreen Mac. We have touchscreen Windows PCs but they aren’t exactly lighting up the market.

I think critics just want something to believe in…the magic holy grail that if only it would be produced it would cure all problems and result in skyrocketing growth and great press, above all. Some people just like to believe in unicorns.

Perhaps it is because Microsoft is pushing touchscreen PCs lately on TV advertisements. It is one of the few differentiating features between current PCs and Macs that favors the PC side – so they emphasize it as an exciting and important feature even if relatively few people appear to need it.

Personally, I don’t need a touchscreen. But I could see that there might be times when a touch/stylus-enabled display could be useful.

the best solution is to make the keyboard/trackpad portion of the clamshell an entire touch screen with programmable, resizable, moveable keyboards, trackpads, tear off menus, pallets, etc etc. This provides more real estate for the display and provides massive touch screen productivity. those who say it would lose the tactile feedback, minor issue over time.

It’s not impossible. You just have to trust that you know where your fingers are AND trust the OS to increase your targets on the right letters at the right time. I touch typed on the 9.7 inch iPad screen and the biggest problem was no home row rest. Once I learned to hover I could type quite accurately with iOS catching any errant slips.

I’ve been repeating this over and over on here. Apple’s major problem is this: it has two completely different operating systems. For starters, this hamstrings them to not being able to do much more innovation with the Mac: no multi-touch input or other input methods period. And then we have how jarring application experiences are on iOS (stripped down versions of their desktop or even Web counterparts).

Microsoft has the right strategy: one operating system that allows for not only precise mouse input, but multi-touch and other input modes where full versions of applications run on all devices. I’ve said this all along: nobody can really criticize things like the MS Studio PC because the user is not forced to use multi-touch. They can just use it like any regular desktop. Multi-touch is an added benefit and a big one at that.

Onto one operating system and design. No, you don’t need to make targets proportionally bigger on larger screens. They just have to be big enough to accomodate an average person’s fingers. That’s it. Nothing more. No bigger.

With responsive design, we’ve learned a lot over the years. Apple could utilize responsive design so applications automatically optimize based on screen size. Right now, they don’t really do this and iOS’s management of different screen sizes is terrible, so is OS X’s.

I also completely disagree with Phil Schiller on touch and large screens. It’s precisely that the screen is larger that makes multi-touch even more useful. You have much more room for your hands, you can swipe and arrange things on a much larger canvas, increasing productivity. Take Maps for instance. Way better on a larger screen, especially with multi-touch. Take browsing the Web: same thing… you can put a few or three browser windows next to one another…

MS has the right strategy, but their execution has always been flawed. They are getting better though and are a threat to Apple once again, with the MS Surface Studio PC being a threat.

The problem is that you guys are delusional… you think Apple has some bag of magic that is going to be released this year or next. But that is not happening. What’s happening is history is repeating itself: Apple needs a new operating system, and they have a leader who is bleeding their resources on R&D unicorns.

We waited 4 years, for instance, for the MacBook Pro, and we get something that is barely any different than original Retina MacBook Pros, but with a TouchBar. The TouchBar is clearly a sign that Apple has no answer to the problems being discussed. This is it. And we’ll be on this train for years to come. The TouchBar is a confused mess of an input mode that looks like something from the 1990s: it’s redundant and flawed.

All of the evidence points to Apple being lost… chasing R&D unicorns and wasting time and money. Instead, they should have stopped messing around with cars and watches and been reinventing their computers and operating systems, all with the end goal of significant conversion of technologies into one operating system, utilizing the latest in responsive design with new classes of devices that do multi-touch, mouse input, etc.

We currently use operating systems that basically were invented in the 1980s…

If Microsoft continues doing what they’re doing, Apple is going to lose in a big way: the desktop is going to be the new mobile. It’s just waiting to be reinvented, and the MS Surface Studio PC is part of this reinvention.

From a hardware standpoint, I like the idea of being able to use a large iPad in two forms: A) standalone, and B) as a display screen for a Mac OSX box/laptop/dock of some sort.

I have yet to warm to iOS – no user-available file system, some apps that simply run/operate better/easier on a laptop, other older apps that have no equivalent in the iOS world, no ability to run a local VM and other operating systems.

What I would like to see is a larger iPad size, built with easy-to-grab handles on either side, a tough-case that can take a fall when it (inevitably) slides off of one’s lap, and onto the floor a couple/four times — AND, it will plug-into a Mac OSX box and become a display screen. Yet, while serving as a display screen, the larger iPad’s iOS device is quietly communicating with the Mac OSX box’s OS, allowing syncing and other necessary housekeeping functions to transpire between the two OS environments, transparent to the user.

Extended use of gestural interfaces without the ability of the user to rest their arm is referred to as “gorilla arm.”[55] It can result in fatigue, and even repetitive stress injury when routinely used in a work setting. Certain early pen-based interfaces required the operator to work in this position for much of the work day.[56] Allowing the user to rest their hand or arm on the input device or a frame around it is a solution for this in many contexts. This phenomenon is often cited as a prima facie example of what not to do in ergonomics.

IF there is a choice to entirely IGNORE the touchscreen, that might make sense, EXCEPT there’s that nagging added COST question.

Go get an iPad and add a keyboard if you insist upon a touchscreen laptop from Apple. √ √ √

There are obvious uses for BIG touchscreens when demonstrating or brainstorming in a room of people. But what is that market worth? That’s a more open question and may well grow with time. But there are video projection and touch location solutions already on the market providing flexibility that a fixed display cannot.

You’re not getting it. There is effectively no gorilla arm on something like the MS Surface Studio PC. That’s because it’s designed to accomodate the new multi-touch: the screen moves in and angles close to you with an innovative hinge. You can then use multi-touch with your arms like a preying mantis: elbows bent and at the sides, thereby eliminating gorilla arm. And Users can also rest their arms on the screen… and it does pen input.

Remember when Apple used to be innovative like this…

And iOS is simply too handicapped to be a replacement for OS X/devices: terrible multi-tasking, low power, substandard and stripped down Apps, too small a screen… the iPad Pro is not sufficient.

Dude,
you are bringing up the old, tired argument. About past MS versions of Windows. They have it right with W10. I haven’t had one crash, etc. since ive used it. Yes, it is still susceptible to viruses, malware, etc. you need 2 levels of protection. AV and malware, and you ar good. Get over it, Win10 is a threat to OSX. Period.

I disagree. I think the iPad Pro was poorly executed. The fact that good hand writing recognition is not on iPad but was present on the now 20 year old message pad means Apple is not thinking their iOS products through. They could stomp M$ in one product line.

Another problem Apple have is the absurd pricing relative to increased features. My MacBook Air functions just fine for what I want it for. If I’m interested in the new Touch Bar, I have to spend $2000 to get a machine that has the new gimmick. They need some seriously transformative hardware to get people like me to plunk down two grand.

I don’t want a touchscreen Mac. I want the Mac to be as fast and easy to use as it was years ago. No hidden controls and transparency bullshit, just pure desktop efficiency.

If you want a touchscreen, then buy an iPad at Apple’s inflated prices. If Apple was smart it would an put SD card slot and move to USB-C on the iOS gear to enable fast local file sharing, but Apple is hellbent on getting you to rent their cloud, so no wonder Apple is losing the ultraportables market too.

So you recommend people pay a significant premium for features they don’t want? Is that on top of the Apple brand premium for products that Ive removes features the customers do want?

Hey, remember the colorful plastic iMacs that practically saved the company? People loved them because they were affordable and convenient and stylish. Now all Macs are gray, overpriced, and inconvenient. Or antiquated, or it has crummy battery life. No touchscreen on a Mac is going to solve that.

Apple needs to offer better convenience features and pricing in its Macs, not touchscreens.

He probably did. Still, I think MacObserver has a point. Offering multiple configurations of hardware doesn’t come for free. Apple has the slimmest variety of hardware of any major PC maker and keep removing customer options with each generation. I don’t think Apple wants to offer touch and non-touch versions of the same product. That is a question for Apple’s supposed supply chain genius.

I wish Apple would just provide better value in Macs with increased battery life, an array of new and legacy connections, and more reasonable prices.

Wasn’t convinced about MDN’s take on this device originally but coming around to it, especially as it’s the only way Apple could even have a chance of selling it as a logical distinctive plan, without the total humiliation of a decisive U-Turn on its long pronounced beliefs.

Their continued discounting of true combo devices, which ironically they pioneered in patent applications, is almost exclusively fueled to my mind by greed in that wish to sell both Macs and Tablets at least till they forced us all over to iOS devices, and/or keep their large profit margins intact that a combo device would probably preclude. That was short sighted and arrogant in the extreme, based on commercial over design considerations, as in reality the technologies to make such a device increasingly viable were always going to develop over time, so that very valid initial argument would decline accordingly. The touchbar is perfectly logical, indeed will become the norm in laptops, but it isn’t a touch screen replacement in itself as Apple are left looking like claiming in the timing. As MDN state, on a laptop, if at all possible both options are a useful quality to have for most people at least dome of the time, as long as there are no specific unacceptable compromises as a result. One device, instead of two is simply undeniable logic unless you want to milk the consumer of course, which tend to be the priorities of accountants and production bods, perhaps significantly. Of course if both your separate device product lines decline as a result of that decision then we see just how short sighted that short sighted view ultimately is and further irony exists in the fact that is exactly how Apple took markets away from others who took similar decisions based on short term gain over logic, or the innate cost and fear of changing tack when profits still look healthy.

“keep their large profit margins intact that a combo device would probably preclude”
Why does anyone think a combo device by… think about this now… APPLE would NOT have the same large profit margins? They’re the ones setting the price and if they want to make 37% profit on it, you’d either buy it or not. They’re not going to sell anything with slim to no (or has been recently proposed, negative) profit.

And “whatever it would be” would never cannibalize iPad sales. Even the cheapest fully usable Mac (screen, keyboard, everything) is MORE expensive than an iPad and I don’t see anyone paying MORE to do the facebooks and candy crush just because it’s MacOS.

I don’t care what any media moron says, Touch screens for computers are “stupid” is retarded to strong a word? not only is reaching up to a fixed screen in front of out a tiring event if done enough, eventually your screen becomes filled with prints, no matter how effective the screen design is made to try and eliminate it.. I’d like to watch one of these media morons work and see if they actually have a touch screen computer and how often they really use it… I’d predict, rarely at best.

I have no reason to want a touch-display desktop Mac. I honestly hate displays with fingerprints on them. I’m even constantly cleaning my smartphone screen to get rid of fingerprints. I suffer from bursitis in my shoulders from playing too much handball when I was younger. My shoulder joints don’t particularly appreciate having to reach up up repeatedly. There are many things I believe Apple is behind in, but touch-displays aren’t one of them. I definitely prefer a trackpad or mouse because smaller pointer movements translate into larger ones on the display and that’s perfect for me and with no stress on my shoulder joints.

I’d like to see actual proof in numbers that touch-display desktops and notebooks are more in demand than non-touch-display desktops and notebooks. I find it hard to believe. I can understand it if a notebook is convertible into a tablet (detachable or foldable) then it makes sense to me. Apple can’t follow that path because it wants to sell pure notebooks and pure tablets. Apple will not make any 2 in 1 devices due to their supposed compromises.

You say that, but when I go into the Apple store there is row after row after row of iPads attached to Apple’s keyboard case, neatly lined up like laptops. If the idea is so stupid, why to Apple promote it so heavily?

This is such crap. If you can touch your trackpad, why the hell do you need to touch the screen? Touch screens have a some specific uses – like you restaurant server keying in your order – or if you’re an artist who wants to simulate brushstrokes, etc. This is just a long and concerted effort for companies with inferior technology to try to legitimize they product by trying to get Apple to stoop to their level to make themselves look as good as Apple. If Apple makes stupid crap, they win.

I saw that AirBar before, and although it appears to work, the screens on Apple laptops weren’t designed to be repeatedly touch and swiped. I wonder what the long term effects of this would be. I also think a touch screen is a stupid idea, unless it was a detachable type.

I’m with Macinfo on this one – whoever wrote this article is clueless. Apple needs to produce a touchscreen Mac right after they produce the Apple version of the Echo – never. Want a touchscreen Apple product? The iPad Pro is phenomenal. The whining about Apple’s pricing is soooo tiresome. If you can’t afford to play Apple, go play Surface or Fire or some other Apple wannabee. You get what you pay for and we don’t have to read your crybaby junk. Win-Win.

I am, however, concerned about Apple product leadership. Steve Jobs is gone and Tim Cook is product clueless. It is quite fair to wonder, with the man who drove all products Apple through a string of innovative devices no longer there, how the heck they move into the future. Who will say, “this is not yet right and we need to start over” when that is the correct play and who has the genius to know what people want before they realize it? Nobody. However Apple is attacking this void, one thing is for sure, the lightweight who wrote this junk article has zero insight into the answer to that question. Maybe they can write another “MacBook Pro short battery life” or “iTunes interface sucks” column. The whiners will love it.

Good point. Here’s my point of view: I hate iPads too. Dirty screen, horrible to type, poor ergonomics for productivity. I don’t even like touchscreens on microwaves.

The touchscreen is okay for phones, but what i use and love is an old MacBook Pro with a trackball attached via goog old fashioned wires. I don’t want to learn 25 multitouch swiping moves and I don’t want to memorize 3-key shortcuts. I want a big screen and an always visible toolbar.

If Apple had a clue, it would spend some of its billions of dollars in cash on a new series of Mac vs PC ads instead of chasing the Microsoft Surface with iPads usiya crippled consumer OS.

I don’t do photo retouch in my iPad. Image attempting to get rid of something that is not on your image, but it’s on your screen. As a graphic designer/web develop/ Illustrator, I don’t care for people touching my screen to pint things out. The first thing I tell a client is DO NOT TOUCH THE SCREEN.